Anger as unions retreat over national pensions strike

Published Tue 20 Mar 2012

Issue No. 2295

A planned national strike on 28 March will not go ahead after the leaderships of the unions involved voted to either call it off or limit the action to London.

The PCS, NUT, UCU and EIS unions were all planning to strike on the day. But despite big votes for action, the executive committees of the PCS civil service workers’ union and the Scotland’s EIS teachers’ union voted against taking any action on the day.

The PCS says it now plans to “work with other unions to build for coordinated national industrial action”—but not until next month.

And the NUT teachers’ union executive limited their walkout to London. After the PCS vote, the UCU lecturers’ union executive did the same.

After the magnificent strike on 30 November last year, this is a blow to the campaign against the Tory attacks. We need to fight to get the strikes back on.